Home Office policy takes immigration facial recognition beyond UK ports

The Home Office has published a policy on Oct. 8 governing Immigration Enforcement’s use of live facial recognition (cameras that scan faces in a set zone and compare them in real time against a watchlist), including deployments at transport hubs, events and along travel routes away from ports of entry, and joint operations with police, Computer Weekly reported Oct. 30. A data protection impact assessment published Oct. 22 says the technology could support “administrative or civil immigration activity,” which Computer Weekly reports could put people on watchlists for overstaying a visa or working without permission. The policy says alerts are reviewed by trained staff, no action is taken solely on an alert, under-18s are excluded and images that trigger no alert are deleted; trials at Holyhead port scanned 5,474 faces for one arrest in November 2025 and 2,752 faces for two arrests from February 2026, per Computer Weekly.